Climate Ready Boston Released

Today marks the release of Climate Ready Boston, a bold initiative that examines the possible impacts of climate change to the city over the next century. You can download the complete report here, or read on for a high-level overview below.

What is
Climate Ready Boston?

It’s a roadmap for Boston to
be better prepared for coastal, riverine, and stormwater flooding and impacts
of heat. The report identifies vulnerabilities, analyzes, and quantifies
projected annualized losses, and outlines opportunities to mitigate impacts. In
addition to protecting against future flooding and other impacts, resiliency
planning works towards opportunities to make Boston an increasingly livable
city. Climate Ready Boston offers approaches to preparing the city for
uncertain future events, improving the city’s vibrancy, and spurring
responsible economic development. Boston’s work in this topic area has very
real implications for the future of the city, but also sets an example for
resilience planning and investment that leads the region and the nation.

What was the impetus for this initiative?

Climate Ready Boston builds
on years of research and discussion on sea level rise in the city. A series of
related studies were conducted by a mixture of civic, non-profit, and
for-profit entities, including: the City of Boston, Boston Harbor Now, Sasaki, and
the Green Ribbon Commission. This precedent work culminated in the City of
Boston successfully applying for a Department of Coastal Zone Management grant
to complete a detailed vulnerability assessment.

Who is involved?

This initiative is led by the
City of Boston in partnership with the Green Ribbon Commission and the Massachusetts
Office of Coastal Zone Management to develop resilient solutions which will
prepare our city for climate change.

The City of Boston and the
Green Ribbon Commission selected Arcadis, an engineering firm, and Sasaki, a
Boston-based design and planning firm, to conduct the study. Also involved is
the Green Ribbon Commission, HR&A, and the University of Massachusetts Boston School for the Environment.

This map details the areas of Boston that would be regularly impacted by sea level rise in the 2070s

What’s at risk?

Without action, our projections indicate that:

- Boston will
encounter more than twice as many heat-related deaths by the 2020s

- By 2030s-2050s, 9” of sea level rise would increase flooding
from 1% annual chance storms. These
storms would inundate some 2,100 buildings, including the homes of 16,000
Bostonians. Such an event would cause an estimated $2.3 billion in physical
damages

- By late century, 5% of Boston’s total land area will be
inundated at high tide at least once a month, even without storm conditions.

-
Over 11,000
structures and 85,000 people will be directly exposed to frequent stormwater
flooding as soon as the 2070s

What are some of the key takeaways of the findings?

Rising sea levels mean that flooding
from major storms will occur much more frequently. A flood that has only a 1% chance of
occurring in any given year right now will be roughly equivalent to the regular
high tide later this century. Risks associated with heat will continue to climb,
causing serious, but preventable, impacts to health. While issues of stormwater
flooding and heat will impact populations across the city, coastal flooding will
have a concentrated impact on several neighborhoods: East Boston, South Boston,
Downtown, and Charlestown in the near-term, and the South End later in the
century.

How should we take action?

Our research drives home the
fact that humans’ response today has
a direct and significant impact on how severe sea level rise will be in 100
years. Looking at the short term, we will see higher sea levels, higher “king
tides,” and greater storm surges. Too often in the past, flood protection has
focused on gray infrastructure such as flood walls. Now, with growing needs and
limited funding, we’re looking at solutions that serve “resiliency dividends”—options
that respond to these events while simultaneously improving the city. Parks can
double as holding space for flood water, for instance, or levees can create
coastal protection that incorporate recreational trail systems.

Additionally, the need for
public outreach and education on the topic has never been more important. By
helping everyone—from residents to large-scale developers—understand how even
simple behavioral changes can positively impact our collective fate, we can
work towards a brighter, more sustainable future together. A significant reduction
in carbon emissions, for example, could mean the difference between 3’ or 8’ of
sea level rise—a huge difference—by the 2070s.

There are many strategies—both large and small—that can help us effectively prepare for climate change

Were any of the findings a surprise?

While impacts will continue
to grow over the course of the century, we’ll start experiencing real effects
in the near-term. By 2030s, seas could be 9” higher than they are today and
could expose 8% of the City’s total land area to flooding in a large storm.

Additionally, it was
surprising to find that some of the areas most at risk are also growth and
development areas for the City of Boston (the Seaport and East Boston). This seems
counterintuitive in some ways, but also offers an opportunity to leverage the
billions in investment in those areas to build in a sustainable and resilient
way.

Does Boston’s history impact its future in any
unexpected ways?

Boston’s harbor is well
protected by the Harbor Islands, which buffer the city from waves and storm
surge. In Boston’s earlier years, this protection allowed for a sense of
security when much of the city’s current area was being filled in during the
1800s. In creating this new land, early residents only built a few feet above
high tide. But, today, as seas are rising, much of the filled land is once
again at risk of more frequent flooding. As the recent “king tides” have been
made very clear, properties and infrastructure at these low elevations will
need to address higher flood risks in the coming years.

Waves from a recent "king tide" crest a sea wall in Downtown Boston

Who is at risk?

Geographically, different
parts of the city will be impacted by different hazards. Coastal neighborhoods will
be at higher risk of flooding. Inland
neighborhoods will be exposed to greater impacts of heat—many areas are already
regarded as “heat islands.” All neighborhoods will be exposed to increased
stormwater flooding if there are not significant improvements to infrastructure—especially
in low-lying areas.

Additionally, some residents are
more vulnerable to impacts. Climate Ready Boston looks at seven major
categories of socially vulnerable residents—such as the elderly, who might lose
access to necessary medical equipment in power outages, or those with lower
incomes, who might lack the resources to evacuate the city if public transit
fails. Action needs to be prioritized to address areas of Boston where there is
significant overlap between these vulnerable populations and projected
climate-change impacts.

What’s next?

Climate Ready Boston offers several
potential strategies to preparing the city for what lies ahead. One of first
follow-up initiatives will be looking at resilience solutions that address
near-term flood entry points in Charlestown and East Boston.

What is the timeline?

The project kicked off in
November 2015. The full report was released today, December 8 2016, at a press
event and panel discussion hosted by the City of Boston.